Ohio Collaborative Community-‐ Police Advisory Board
August 11, 2015 Meeting Summary
On December 12, 2014, Governor John Kasich signed Executive Order 2014-‐06K announcing the creation of the Ohio Task Force on Community-‐Police Relations. The charge of the Task Force is threefold: 1) To explore the cause of fractured relationships between communities and law enforcement, 2) To examine strategies to strengthen trust between the community and law enforcement in order to resolve the underlying causes of friction; and 3) To provide the Governor with a report with recommendations about best practices available to communities. As a result of the work of the Task Force, on April 30, 2015, Governor John Kasich signed Executive Order 2015-‐04K establishing the Ohio Collaborative Community-‐Police Advisory Board. The Collaborative is chaired by Director John Born, Office of Public Safety, and The Honorable Nina Turner, former Ohio Senator. Members appointed by the Governor, including ex officio members, are identified below: • • • • • • • • • •
Officer Detective Brian S. Armstead—Akron Police Department, member of the Fraternal Order of Police Dr. Ronnie Dunn—Cleveland State University, Professor of Urban Studies and member of the NAACP Criminal Justice Committee The Reverend Damon Lynch III—senior pastor, New Prospect Baptist Church The Most Reverend George Murry—Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown Chief Michael J. Navarre—Oregon Police Department, member of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police Honorable Ronald J. O’Brien—Franklin County Prosecutor Sheriff Tom Miller—Medina County Sheriff’s Office, member of the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association Lori Barreras—member of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission Mayor Michael H. Keenan—City of Dublin, local government representative Austin B. Harris—student at Central State University
Ex officio members: • • • • • •
The Honorable George V. Voinovich—former U.S. senator, governor of Ohio, and mayor of Cleveland The Honorable Louis Stokes, former member of Congress, honorary co-‐chair The Honorable Tom Roberts, former Ohio senator, life member of the NAACP Senator Cliff K. Hite, Ohio Senate Senator Sandra Williams, Ohio Senate Representative Tim Derickson, Ohio House
The purpose of the Collaborative is to advise and work with the Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) in the Ohio Department of Public Safety to implement the Task Force’s recommendations, as identified in the Executive Order.
August 11, 2015, Columbus, OH: Third meeting of the Ohio Collaborative Community-‐Police Advisory Board. The third meeting of the Collaborative was held on August 11, 2015 at 10:00 AM at the Ohio Department of Public Safety. The following members were present at the meeting: • • • • • • • •
Executive Director Karhlton Moore Director John Born The Honorable Nina Turner The Honorable Ron O’Brien The Honorable Tom Roberts Senator Cliff Hite Dr. Ronnie Dunn Chief Michael Navarre
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Mayor Michael Keenan Sheriff Tom Miller Bishop George Murry Commissioner Lori Barreras Representative Tim Derickson Senator Sandra Williams Austin B. Harris
Director Born welcomed members of the Collaborative. The meeting started with a presentation by Lexipol representatives Ken Wallentine and Tim Kensok . Lexipol provides comprehensive, state specific public safety policies for law enforcement. In Ohio, 120 agencies use Lexipol. Of these, roughly 95 are law enforcement agencies and the remainder are fire departments. The Lexipol approach consists of three elements: 1. Content • • • •
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Policies are comprehensive, state-‐specific, and continuously updated, which support accreditation standards. There are 161 total policies in Ohio manual, including use of force, recruiting/hiring. Policies meet state and federal law. The policy content developer team consists of subject matter experts inside and outside of the law enforcement community (practitioners and community members) and legal experts. When policy is developed, it is vetted through experts within the particular state. Types of tools that Lexipol offer include: o Policies and best practices o Community engagement toolkit—helps chiefs understand various programs to engage with the community, how to implement them, and how to measure their impact o Daily training bulletins The presenters noted that Lexipol policies address nearly all the recommendations put forth by the Ohio Task Force on Community-‐Police Relations.
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The focus is on effective, technology-‐based delivery of the content.
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The delivery platform is web-‐based, and allows an agency to manage content, provide access, and track accountability.
3. Support services •
Support services resources are available to roll out all aspects of programs, from community engagement, to policy implementation, to policy management, and more.
There are currently statewide Lexipol programs in Oklahoma, North Dakota, North Carolina, and Minnesota. Funding for these statewide initiatives varies, with one state’s program funded by an insurance and risk management company. Lexipol recommends the following approach to implementation of their program: 1. Adopt use of force and recruiting and hiring policies. 2. Identify program scope by agency segments with similar needs (based on factors like size, rural vs urban, degree of diversity, counties vs municipalities, etc.). 3. Establish agency work groups for collaboration and consistency, which minimizes administrative overhead and reduces cross-‐jurisdiction conflict. 4. Implement and execute program elements. Next, Director Born introduced fellow Collaborative member Lori Barreras, a commissioner in the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Commissioner Barreras provided information relevant for developing the recruiting/hiring standard. She stressed the importance of finding the best qualified individual for a given position. To do so, agencies should have a documented process in place. • •
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At the first stage of the process, all candidates are in the pool. In the next stage, the candidates who meet the minimum qualifications are identified. This is the stage in which the hiring team should be looking at the diversity of the qualified candidates. It is important to ensure that the qualified candidate pool is reflective of the community; thus, one needs to know the diversity of the community into which the agency is hiring. It is also at this stage where education, age, residency, and other factors come into play. Following this, physical tests are administered, and may include vision examinations, height and weight measurements, etc. In the next stage, mental/psychological tests are administered. These include tests to measure cognitive functioning, and include tests of intelligence, judgement, and ability to process information. Tests may also be given to assess communication skills, morality, and drug use, among others. Various background checks to look at criminal history, credit history, educational history/transcripts, etc. may also occur at this stage. Bias testing may take place at this stage. These tests and checks have financial costs associated with them. Beyond this stage, the candidate pool is greatly reduced, and hiring teams may begin to incorporate interviews into the process.
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It is important to note that if a particular group gets disproportionately screened out at any given stage, hiring officials need to take a look at the tests and results more closely to determine the cause(s). All testing tools must be valid, reliable, consistently used and properly implemented, and relate to the skills needed for the job.
At the conclusion of Commissioner Barreras’ presentation, Director Born began a discussion of the standards and policy statements regarding recruiting and hiring. Director Born reminded the Collaborative that in order for an agency to be compliant with any standard, they must: • • • •
Have a policy/procedure in place Demonstrate knowledge/awareness of the policy Demonstrate proficiency with regard to the policy Show agency compliance on the policy
The discussion was then opened to the group to debate the content and wording of the draft recruiting and hiring standard. Discussion centered on the following two sentences: “The goal of every Ohio law enforcement agency is to recruit and hire qualified individuals while providing equal employment opportunity. Ohio law enforcement agencies should consist of a diverse workforce that reflects the citizens served.” The following suggestions were offered: • • • •
The second sentence should reflect that this is a goal, not a requirement, e.g., “strive to consist of…” However, to some, “strive” does not make the statement strong enough. “…reflect the citizens served” is problematic for some communities that are not diverse, but that wish to incorporate diversity into their workforce. However, to some, “…reflect the citizens served” is an important and meaningful statement for those who are underrepresented in the workforce.
Executive Director Moore offered to take these suggestions and craft a revised standard, which will be emailed to the group for further comment. Before adjourning, Director Born instructed the group to think about the next standards that should be put in place. Related to the standard on recruiting and hiring, one member identified the need to prevent the hiring of bad officers. A discussion ensued regarding the problem of allowing officers to resign rather than be fired. It was suggested that there must be agency accountability for the hiring decisions that are made, and that it is incumbent upon the agency not only to have a documented hiring process in place, but to follow this process. In doing so, an agency should uncover the reasons for an
officer’s resignation. As Commissioner Barreras noted in her presentation, one of the most common mistakes that hiring officials make is bypassing a necessary step in the hiring process. The next meeting will take place during the last week of August. A doodle poll will be emailed to everyone to identify the date that works best for most members. Before concluding, Director Born announced to the group the presence of Ohio Police Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) instructors to demonstrate a firearms simulator. Members were encouraged to participate in a firearms simulation once the meeting was adjourned. The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.
